The Seeded Strawberry
by CaptainBegonias
Summary: This takes place after Pikmin 3. Brittany is left on PNF-404 and experiences a bit of life on the other side. Pikmin!captains ahead. Thanks to FluffyFriz for the inspiration!
1. Chapter 1

(Author's Note: This is a little something inspired by FluffyFriz's Left Behind. Please don't forget to review, I appreciate feedback dearly!)

"Ohh… My back…"

Brittany was coming to slowly, the sight of the setting sun greeting her. Her entire body was wracked with pain as she took in the deserts around her weakly, trying not to move too much. She looked up and thought back to earlier. She remembered fighting that gelatinous creature, remembered how she ended up stuck in it and lifted in the air, and how it spun and flung her hard across the air. She swore she could hear the screams of her crewmates as she flew across the sky and well out of their sight.

After a few moments, Brittany decided she had had enough of a lie down and attempted to get up, which turned out to be a big mistake. She winced as a throbbing headache bore down on her hard and kneeled over, holding her helmet in pain. She also felt incredibly lightheaded and it was getting harder to breathe by the minute. Just what kind of damage did that creature do…?

The answer came to her in the form of a warning blink from the suit's alert system. A few seconds later, the messenger said, "Warning! Severe rupture in suit tank! Fatal amounts of oxygen detected!"

 _Just great_ … Brittany found it increasingly difficult to breathe as the oxygen started overtaking her in higher doses. As she laid down, desperately struggling to keep conscious, she could hear the fluttering of wings ahead and could faintly make out a group of pikmin surrounding her. What were they doing…?

Brittany's vision blurred further until she finally blacked out, the pikmin moving in on her.

"Captain?"

"Yes, Alph?"

Alph, Charlie, and Olimar were all in the S.S. Drake, watching the screen in worry. Brittany's tracking signal was unfortunately broken. However, her health support was intact and could still give them data on her current condition. Alph looked at Charlie nervously. "Should we search the whole planet for her?"

"…" Charlie shook his head. "I don't think she got thrown that far, Alph. Still, it would take a long while before we'd be able to get any leads on her position, with her tracking signal being broken. I'm… worried, to say the least."

An uncomfortable silence overtook them all. Captain Olimar knew what Charlie was thinking, although he didn't want to say it out loud in front of Alph.

"Captain?" Alph asked again. Charlie nodded in response.

"Do you think… Do you think she could be safe with the pikmin?"

That was an interesting question… Charlie knew that pikmin were certainly capable of protecting her, although he worried about what she would do in a suit with no food nor air. He looked up at the monitor with a grim expression.

Brittany's vitals were dropping fast. Charlie paled as he watched the numbers on screen drop lower and lower…

A message popped up on screen. "Brittany has passed away. Cause of death: Oxygen poisoning."

Charlie hung his head while Alph trembled in horror. "C-Captain…"

"…I'm sorry." Charlie held Alph in a tight hug, trying to comfort him as the screen blinked off. The two stayed that way for a while, looking much like a father and his son. Charlie reluctantly broke the hug before announcing, "We're going to have to send notification to Brittany's aunt and father. Tell them… tell them what happened. Bea won't take the news very well… I'll take some time out to comfort her in her grief. Brittany was a great loss to all of us, and it's up to us to make sure her passing wasn't in vain."

Alph stood tall, still with that sad look on his face. "Y-yes, captain. Let's go home."


	2. Chapter 2

It was dark, very dark. Brittany could feel herself regaining consciousness, stirring slightly in place. Was it all a dream? It must have been. Why else would she be waking up?

As she moved, she could hear the cheers of pikmin all around. At first, she didn't think of it as too big of a deal before she noticed one very important detail.

Her helmet was gone.

Brittany opened her eyes and sat up fast with a yelp. As she took a look around, she saw that her perspective of color was… off. The sky was an odd dull red, and what little grass there was appeared to be navy blue. There were winged pikmin all around her; Despite their lack of facial features, they seemed overjoyed to see her awake and moving. Brittany, however, was more confused and scared than anything. If she didn't have her helmet, shouldn't she have suffocated? More importantly, WHY wasn't she suffocating?

Unless… Oh no.

Brittany slowly gave her own face a quick pat before reaching up her head. She felt her hand bump into something protruding from the back of her head.

Oh, _no._

Brittany slowly tugged the strange protrusion into her line of view. The thing turned out to be a long, slender stem that ended in a leaf.

A pikmin stem.

Brittany could only stare in shock for a while, slack jawed. The expression she wore was almost comical. The winged pikmin all looked at one another in confusion and slight concern before turning back to her.

After a few minutes, Brittany started laughing out of fear and disbelief at the situation, startling some of the pikmin. This couldn't be happening. She had to be dreaming. This wasn't real. Her laughter slowly died down and she shook her head before examining herself with a frown. Her suit was now loose-fitting and hung off of her, making it obvious she had lost quite a bit of weight. While her boots still fit, her gloves were the worst offenders and constantly slid off her hands every time she moved. Brittany made a mental note to take them off once she was done processing this development. She then turned to the pikmin and looked them over as they stared back, watching her with unblinking eyes. She thought it was a little creepy.

"U-uh…" She found it was hard to say what she wanted to. Perhaps it was the shock of dying and getting resurrected in such little time, or perhaps it was just because she couldn't think of anything at the moment. A few of the pikmin tilted their heads and made little squeaks in curiosity.

Brittany smiled awkwardly and said, "Um… Hello?"

The pikmin all squeaked cheerfully back. Brittany could understand their cute little squeaks as, of course, "Hello!" or "Hi!" She briefly wondered if it was because she was now part pikmin.

With a deep breath, she asked, "I… died, right? And you all brought me back? I-is that correct?"

Several pikmin in the group nodded, the others following suit. Some made squeaks of affirmation.

"Y-you did? But… why?"

One pikmin raised its little arm towards Brittany. There was a chorus of squeaks that sounded like "Brittany" and "Friend." Brittany looked surprised.

"I'm… A friend?"

The pikmin all squeaked happily in response.

"So… That's why you made me into this form? Because you think of me as a friend…?"

More affirmative squeaks. Brittany had to admit, the pikmin were sweet, even if their idea of a gift scared the everloving heavens out of her.

"Then-"

Brittany jumped as she heard the growling of nearby predators. She would have to save it for later. Right then her concern was getting out of there. She looked up at the group before reaching for her glove and pulling it off, revealing a small black hand with tapered fingers. She took off the other glove as well and threw them both away, somewhat content now that her hands had been freed.

"I'll ask later. Let's go. It's almost sunset."

The Pikmin all nodded and flew into the onion. Brittany reached behind herself and grabbed the now-useless life support system, taking it off her suit and giving it a look over. There was a large hole near the bottom. This, she surmised, was where the leak had sprung. Of course, she wouldn't be needing it any longer. She threw aside the system and left it to clatter against a rock as she approached the onion, ready to face whatever would happen during her new life.

Although Brittany tried to seem confident, there was a nagging feeling at the back of her head that she had forgotten something highly important. However, she felt that whatever it was, it could wait until the morning. She walked up to one tendril and reached out to grab hold of it, hesitating when she spotted tiny hairs all over the tendril. It grossed her out, but she didn't really have room to complain. With a sigh and a nose wrinkle, she gripped onto the tendril, trying not to think about the hairs too much, and climbed towards the entrance of the onion, wondering what it would be like inside. Would they all be packed in like a can of fish, or would they all have their own little space? She hoped it wouldn't be the former. She wasn't sure she could handle the resulting claustrophobia, given everything else that's happened.

She made the final ascent and crawled into the hole. She could have sworn that she had suddenly shrunk in size just before entering. Then again, it might have been a trick of the light. Brittany let go of the tendril and walked into the onion, the tendril retracting and the entrance closing behind her.

To her surprise, the onion was a lot larger inside than it looked on the outside. Brittany guessed that it could hold thousands of pikmin if there were that many. There was a thick pillar of vines and pipes in the center, with several small bulbs hanging off of them. Brittany was slightly nervous as the onion had rows of hallways with barely enough room to maneuver, and it was not helping matters when she noticed that the halls were all dotted with small holes that were capped with a thin, gelatinous cover. The pikmin all seemed eager to get into these holes. Oddly enough, in spite of her disgust and fear, she also felt a slight wave of calm and an instinctual urge to hop in as well. She wondered if her conversion affected her brain more than she knew.

One pikmin touched the gel cap, scrutinizing it before making a satisfied sound and standing on it. Brittany jumped in surprise when the cap suddenly opened and dropped the pikmin in the hole, the cap resealing around the pikmin's stem. Several more pikmin scrambled to find their holes and there was a slight flurry of activity as they all went to sleep (or at least, that's what Brittany thought they were doing.)

Soon, Brittany was standing alone in the onion, surrounded by the stems of resting pikmin. Part of her didn't want to set foot in the hall, but another part of her was gently urging her to go for it. As she puzzled, she felt that wave of calm overtake her again, stronger than before, and before she knew it she was on autopilot, walking through the halls and trying to find the right hole. She halted at one cell that was slightly larger than the others and reached down to touch it. _This one…_ She knew it was right for her.

With a quick glance around to make sure everyone was sleeping (or whatever pikmin did to recuperate for the day,) Brittany unzipped her space suit and wiggled out of it, revealing her new form as a pikmin, complete with pointed toes as she kicked off her boots. A pair of small, translucent wings sprung out of her back as the suit slipped off. Brittany was a little surprised at her sudden change, but didn't say anything as she took off her glasses and gingerly placed them on top of the suit before looking at the hole. Why was she doing this? She was having doubts again, worried about what would happen if she went in. Before she could back out of it, a thought struck her; _It will be okay._

Biting her lip, Brittany tentatively stood on the cap. She yelled as it plunged her inside and closed up, leaving her in near-darkness. She looked around and noticed that she was in a small cell of some kind, and the walls seemed to be made of some kind of organic material that looked to be a mix between brain matter and vines. This led her to wonder if the onion was some kind of sentient life form. As if on cue, she felt something below her move and adjust, lifting her up slightly before the walls closed in on her. Brittany started inwardly panicking at this sudden movement. What was she thinking when she went down here? For all she knew, it could have not recognized her as an actual pikmin and would kill her right then and there. She tried to struggle and get out of her cell as the walls shrunk further and further, trying desperately to free herself. Before she was completely engulfed, she knew that this was what she wanted and calmed down, the pikmin side of her taking over and assuaging her fears. It would be okay. This was what she wanted. This was what she needed.

Everything went completely black. Brittany noticed that, although she was stuck in place due to the cap holding her stem, she had near-complete freedom of movement, with the mass adjusting as she moved. The feeling of the walls was oddly comforting; It was less like she was being held in vines and more like she was in a warm, albeit slimy, blanket from head to toe. Wherever the walls touched her, she felt slight tingles that were… energizing? Refreshing? She had no idea what to call it. Either way, she calmed down once she knew that she wasn't going to die.

She yawned and felt her eyes drift. She had spent so much time being freaked out over something that should have been impossible that she had neglected her own basic needs. She closed her eyes and adjusted slightly, the walls reforming as she went, and drifted off into a deep, albeit uneasy sleep for the night.


	3. Chapter 3

"Brittany, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Brittany was lying on the couch, staring up at the ceiling of her living room. Her Auntie Bea had placed a small tray of pastries down on the table and was dusting off the window a little with her back turned.

"You don't sound okay, sweetie. Is something the matter? You've been pecking at your food rather than going full on out since your trip, and that's certainly nothing like you."

Brittany sighed and sat up, adjusting her glasses. "I guess there has been. I've been thinking since we left PNF-404…"

"About what?" Bea adjusted a row of jars on the sill.

"Well… When we were there, we saw all sorts of relics from a time past." Brittany frowned. "It makes me wonder what happened that caused everything to collapse so suddenly. What if we… became like that planet?"

"Brittany… We didn't. The fact is that you brought back seeds from the planet, they sprouted, and soon we won't have to fear about food ever again. You did wonderfully with your mission, and I have to say… I'm very proud of having you as my niece."

Brittany couldn't help but smile at that. Bea always had that down-to-earth quality about her that she admired. As she combed back her hair, Bea asked, "Does that make you feel better?"

"It does… Thank you, Auntie."

"You're very welcome," Bea chuckled. "Oh, yes, one last thing…"

Huh? Brittany looked at Bea curiously.

Bea turned around, and Brittany yelped as she saw "her" face. It turned out that "she" was not Bea, but rather Captain Charlie. "Have you seen my rubber ducky? I've been looking everywhere!"

"AHH!" Brittany jolted awake with a yell, hyperventilating and wide-eyed. After taking a moment to calm herself down and relax, she looked around. She had been asleep in the onion the whole time.

With a slight groan, she fell back into the mass of vines. Great… The one wish she had, and her brain made a mockery out of it. Brittany frowned as she mulled over the dream, staring at nothing in particular. Eventually, she went back to sleep, but not before one last thought popped into her head.

 _I just want to go home._

Alph and Charlie's return to Koppai was an uncomfortable one. Even though their mission was a success and they had singlehandedly ended the food crisis, their victory had cost them someone dear. It was bad enough when they informed the bio labs where Brittany had worked about what happened, but it got worse when they had to give the news to her family. Alph didn't think he would forget watching Bea break down on the spot and weep nor Brittany's father yelling at the both of them for being so careless with her life. He was pretty sure that, had Bea not talked sense into him in spite of her grieving, he would have pounded the living daylights out of Charlie.

After that fiasco, they were finally able to go home. Alph was happy to see his siblings and grandfather again. However, he couldn't help but have that melancholic feeling throughout the celebrations and cheers, his thoughts centered on Brittany throughout.

Once his homecoming party had ended, Alph laid awake in bed, replaying the events of the day in his mind. He was lost in thought, wondering if the pikmin found Brittany or a bulborb got to her first… he was knocked out of his thoughts by a quiet "psst" from above his bunk.

Alph peeked over the edge of the bed. His elder brother Horace was motioning to him. "So… how was PNF-404? You've been really depressed since you got back."

"PNF-404 was really neat. Super dangerous and I nearly got killed at a few points, but neat," Alph smiled sadly. "One of the crewmates… bit it, though."

"Oh… was it the botanist? I saw that she was missing from the lineup when you returned," Horace frowned.

"Yeah, it was Brittany. Her air tank broke and she suffocated before we went home. She might have been clingy and annoying sometimes, but I kind of liked her a lot. It's weird not having her around anymore."

There was a silence at that. Horace gave Alph an awkward smile, although Alph immediately recognized it as his "i-want-to-ask-a-favor" smile. "So… The Drake has the vital monitors from her passing, right?"

"Yeah… What do you want to do with them?" Alph gave Horace a suspicious stare.

"Well, I was just wondering if I could… Borrow the vitality logs. Y'know, to study."

Alph couldn't say he was surprised; Horace did take his medical studies seriously and would jump at the chance to gather as much material as possible. "I don't see why not. Just make sure you put it back when you're done, though. Grandpa gets suspicious when random pieces are missing from his ship."

"Gotcha. Thanks, little bro." With that, Horace leapt off the top bunk and headed out, presumably to the garage. Alph turned around and his thoughts wandered for a while before he drifted off into sleep, a slight frown on his features.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, Brittany stood fully dressed, a group of winged pikmin by her side. Her wings were glinting in the sunlight, now freed out of her suit; Brittany had taken some time out to cut holes for them. She had decided on looking for the S.S. Drake and her crewmates that day and gathered a group of pikmin for the task before setting off into the sandy deserts, shielding her eyes from the heat. Once again, she had that awful feeling that she was forgetting something, but as her changes extended to her simplified brain, she couldn't remember what it was.

They flew across the desert terrain for hours. The morning heat was merciless and beat down upon the group. Brittany mopped some sweat off her forehead and was contemplating removing the suit before one little pikmin tugged on her sleeve and pointed at the area ahead. This, she assumed, was the place where the S.S. Drake would be stationed. Brittany took a deep breath and strode forward, ready to meet with the rest of the crew.

However, when she actually arrived on the site, there was a problem.

The Drake was nowhere to be found.

Brittany didn't comprehend it at first. Surely they would have returned by now? However, she soon remembered that their mission was to go in, find fruit, and get out. Her face paled as she realized that they probably left due to her vitality failure and ran out to the empty space, her arms out and her mouth slightly open. That was when she thought, _maybe they just haven't landed yet?_

Brittany calmed down at this. That had to be it, they wouldn't just abandon one of their crewmates… Would they?

About three hours passed as Brittany waited… And waited… And waited. She sat there, hoping for the S.S. Drake to descend from the sky so she could meet with the crew and get off the planet.

They never did arrive.

Brittany curled up and trembled slightly, hiding her face out of view. _They really do think I'm dead._

She was in that position for several moments before one pikmin tugged on her arm, squeaking. Brittany moved to look at the pikmin, her eyes glassy as she tried her hardest not to just break down on the spot. "What?"

The pikmin moved in to give her a hug, catching Brittany by surprise. That was when the rest of the pikmin made their moves as well, embracing the distraught hybrid Koppaite in comfort and chattering sadly. Brittany was still before embracing the pikmin that started the hug, trembling as she held it close. She eventually managed to calm down and gave the pikmin's head a stroke, smiling sadly at it before looking up at the other pikmin. She knew that she probably wouldn't ever return home to her family or friends, or be able to enjoy the comforts of her old life again. However, at least she wouldn't be alone in her struggles.

After all, she had her friends to fight alongside.

She stood up and stretched before she noticed that all the pikmin were suddenly on edge, looking at something behind her. She was confused at their behavior until she also noticed that it had suddenly gone dark. Slowly, she turned around.

The Plasm Wraith was standing there, towering over her and her group. Although it lacked a face, Brittany could sense that it was enraged and recognized her as the one who 'kidnapped' Olimar. There was tense silence as Brittany slowly backed away along with the rest of the pikmin, feeling the Wraith stare her down before she fully turned and attempted to make use of her wings for the first time, screaming. The winged pikmin all followed with frightened squeals as they dodged one of the Wraith's elastic arms, soon well out of its attack range as they set off towards the horizon. Brittany glanced behind her to make sure that they had lost it before scanning the deserts from her position in the air. She found it interesting that, even though she only had the wings for a day, she already knew how to use them. She chalked it off as something that her transformation had ingrained in her mind.

As they flew at a leisurely pace and took in the area around them, Brittany heard her stomach growl and gripped it with a frown. She had spent so much time worrying over other things that she had forgotten to eat, a rarity for someone like her. And boy, was she starving! However, she did wonder what she would do if they had already collected all the fruit. As if on cue, the same pikmin from earlier gave Brittany a small shoulder tap to get her attention before pointing to a small patch of grass below them, giving a small series of squeaks that Brittany could identify as 'nectar.' With a raised brow, Brittany let the pikmin lead them all along to the grass patch.

The patch was small, but long. Brittany could pick up a faint sweet smell from the patch and her hand twitched as she looked it over, something urging her to pull out one of the grass blades and drink up whatever it produced. Brittany was slightly confused at these thoughts as a different pikmin (one she could identify as a bud) gave one of the grass blades a hard pull. As the blade was uprooted, a large blob of yellow slime oozed out. Brittany perked up at the sight of the blob. Of course… Nectar. Why hadn't she thought of that?

Two more grass blades were pulled and the resulting nectar gathered into one spot before the pikmin all backed away and allowed Brittany to take it all. Brittany stepped up to the nectar, several pikmin waving at her as she passed them, and examined it curiously. Somehow it looked even more delectable to her with its red sheen, and before she knew it she was in headfirst, sucking it all up with no self-control whatsoever. The sweetness of it brought a smile to her face as she thought of her aunt's cooking.

Brittany stood up with a beam and wiped off her face with the back of her sleeve, feeling satiated. She waved for the pikmin's attention. "So, um… You guys? Pikmin?"

The pikmin looked toward her, some listening with rapt attention while others tilted their heads.

"Thank you… Thank you so much for helping me so much."

There were a few cheerful squeaks at this. Brittany spotted another pikmin staring at something on her head. Brittany reached for the stem and took a look at it in wonder.

The leaf that had been growing on it had bloomed into a pink flower.


	5. Chapter 5

Back on Koppai, Alph had come home from school. Since he didn't really have any homework, he had decided to give the Drake a few tune ups just to take his mind off of Brittany's death. He wasn't sad, but he found it a little more difficult to crack a smile since then. The nightmares wherein he was blamed for her passing certainly didn't help.

As he started work on the ship, tightening a few loose bolts here and giving it a good polishing there, Horace suddenly burst into the room, clutching a disc that Alph recognized as the crew's vitality logs. He breathed heavily and looked as though he had opened a portal to an entirely different dimension. "A-Alph… There you are! I was gonna put this back, but I wanted to show you something weird I found!"

"What is it?" Alph asked, a slightly skeptical, yet curious look on his features.

"Take a look at these logs, you won't believe me otherwise..."

Confused and curious, Alph followed Horace onboard the Drake. Once inside, Horace activated the ship's screen and popped the disk in. As he did this, he asked, "So, you said one of your crewmembers died on the expedition, right?"

Alph nodded with a head scratch. "Yeah…"

"Well, I gave this a quick watch." Horace tapped a few buttons before he opened up Brittany's vitality logs on the moment she suffocated and the termination message came up. "Brittany's vitals did hit zero, that's true. But…"

"But?" Alph could feel something leap up into his chest suddenly.

"Around four minutes into this log, something weird happened. Take a look…" Horace stepped aside. Alph approached the monitor and watched intently. For a few minutes, nothing seemed to happen. However, Alph saw a single heartbeat show on "Cardiovascular activity," followed by another until there was a regular heart pattern. Shortly after, the graphs on "Brain activity" and "Pulse" started raising as well.

Alph was shocked. How was that even possible? Horace kept his eyes on the graph as he continued. "Shortly after this, the monitor got disconnected, which means that someone removed the life support system. It makes me wonder… If Brittany did come back to life, then how was she able to? She suffocated on oxygen. Maybe she found a carbon pocket, or-"

"-Or the pikmin found her," Alph finished. The hope on his features quickly became serious. "I think I know what happened. But first, I gotta ask you… Do you know about the Onions? And are you ready for a trip to a new planet?"

Brittany yawned and stretched as she got up out of her little sleep chamber and into the familiar honeycomb-like structure of the onion. Although she knew she would never be able to get used to the whole 'retracting vines in a tiny space' thing, it didn't freak her out as much as it did when she first came inside the onion. A cool, salty breeze blew in from the entryways of the onion as Brittany approached, leading her to wonder where they had chosen to land.

She and the pikmin ascended onto a sandy shoreline. Brittany glanced around the area they had landed in, her thoughts turning back to Koppai's desert terrain and her ears drooping slightly. They were memories now… She couldn't go back.

With a sigh, Brittany shook her head and walked ahead, the pikmin at her side. She had remembered to pack the nectar they had gathered at the nectar weed patch so that she would be able to feed herself if she got hungry. With a small swig from one of the nectar bottles, she spotted an odd disturbance against the sand; It was difficult to tell what it was against the reds and blues. Brittany approached cautiously, looking at the disturbance and trying to discern what it was. As she walked up, she noticed the spots on it and it spun around, looking at her. It was a dwarf bulborb!

Brittany nearly backed up in surprise, but stood her ground and gave the bulborb a hard punch in the face. This was followed by groups of pikmin swarming it and putting the poor thing out of its misery. As the group cheered, Brittany started sweating when she noticed ten identical spots against the red ground, all asleep. Brittany made her move and jumped in, attacking the nearest bulborb with a yell as the pikmin joined in, fists flying. A minute later, they managed to subdue the group with little effort.

Brittany sighed as she leaned back and mopped her hair while several pikmin carried the bulborb carcasses back to the onion. She had the feeling it was going to be a long day.


	6. Chapter 6

It was halfway through the second day; Brittany was shouting herself hoarse as she directed the pikmin and led them into battle. She wasn't surprised that the bulborbs would go down so easy; After all, they were nothing to her and her partners, having taken out multitudes of bulborbs in the past. The creatures a little higher up the ladder were tougher, but again, nothing to write home about (if she could, anyways.)

Brittany was doing a head count as the winged pikmin flew by. Her face fell as she counted twenty of them, four short of what they started with. She shook her head as the first of the bulborbs reached the onion. She knew that they could compensate for the deaths of their fellows by creating more… Besides, they were probably in a happier place now. Maybe.

Soon, there was a fresh crowd of pikmin joining them. Brittany waved the large crowd over and, with a determined look, set forward, ready to take on the day.

She walked for a short while, stopping to take in the area around her. Brittany had to admit, the land around her was really pretty. Even though life here was fraught with danger, she enjoyed the sights of the trees and the bushes, something she didn't see back on Koppai in the field. She enjoyed the feeling of the soft gravel, the air beneath her feet, the wind on her-

Wait a minute, _air?_

Brittany yelled as she started plunging into the hole she had previously not noticed, trying desperately to save herself from falling.

 _I'm too young for this! If only I knew how to fly… But wait, can I?_

Brittany's eyes widened as she plummeted out of the narrow hole and into a wider space.

 _Oh, yes I can!_

Just before she hit the floor, Brittany managed to flex her back muscles and fly, slowing her fall and landing gracefully. She was glad she wasn't with anyone; She didn't think she could handle the embarrassment of forgetting her own abilities in front of the Koppai Crew. The chirps of pikmin sounded from above as her partners followed her into the area. Brittany waved them over to her side before getting a feel for her surroundings.

She had landed on the top of a massive table. The dungeon she was in was cavernous and dark, the only few sources of light being the hole she came in from and a lone glowing bulb on the opposite wall. Brittany could faintly see something scuttling about, just out of view. She gulped before tentatively stepping forward, feeling a light breeze from the pikmin's wings.

She was only halfway across the table when a creature jumped her and she stumbled back on her behind in surprise. With a shake of her head, she took a look up at what the creature was and her eyes widened. It looked like a sentient bomb rock with legs! With almost no hesitation, she scrambled back onto her feet and ran, her group following closely. The bomb rock exploded behind them, thankfully taking none of her troops out. Brittany smirked and looked back, her momentary lapse in attention causing her foot to snag on something and trip her up. Her glasses were sent skidding across what she had landed on after she fell flat on her face. Cursing under her breath, Brittany started feeling along the ground, looking for her glasses. Her face lit up as her hand bumped something and she picked it up. There they were. She put the glasses back on before looking at what she had just tripped over.

She was standing on a large book. The pages were yellowed and crusty, suggesting quite a bit of age. The ink was smudged in some parts, but she could make out handwriting in a strange language that she couldn't recognize. Brittany rubbed her chin. She found the similarities between this language and Koppai's texts rather uncanny.

Wait…

Brittany reached into her pocket and pulled out her Koppad. Although the map function on it was useless now thanks to her broken tracking signal, the other functions on it were still running smoothly, including the notes. Brittany opened the app, then set to work as she continually glanced between her notes and the language, making sure she was lining everything up right…

A few hours later, Brittany finished writing out the language in her own. She took a glance at her Koppad to confirm her hunch.

Sure enough, the language turned out to be just a fancy variation of Koppai's texts. She started reading what she could make of the texts.

 _Diary Entry, July 13_ _th_ _, 2063_

 _The lead engineer - S.S. Arcadia was finally - morning. Just a - off this planet in - breathe actual fresh air - worry about - the Allium Project. What - not sure. Regardless, I'm - problem. - course for SDG-52 K, - All I hope - nothing goes wrong in -_

 _-Dr. Kristen B. Johnson_

Brittany scratched her head. SDG-52 K? Allium Project? What on Koppai were those? She was particularly interested in the mention of S.S. Arcadia. Wasn't that an ancient myth about a ship that once came to Koppai and blessed the planet with life or something of the sort?

With a shrug, Brittany turned her attention to the name of the entrant. She found it funny that the doctor had the same last name as her. It was probably just a coincidence, though.

Brittany saved the entry and looked around the area. She had a lot of unsolved questions, and she had the feeling this dungeon would help answer them.


End file.
